Koma Inu's S Class Trials X800 Trial 1: The Journey of 2 Men and a Bird
Alysia Fǎ walked up to the entrance to the legendary savage forest excited to finally demonstrate how skilled she is. It would be a great day and she would give these trials her all. But for these first set of trials she would not have to face them alone, with her was Sagewing and Hiro Kazami both skilled fighters in their own rights she was confident that their odds were very sound considering their skill level. She looked back at the 2 as they stood on the verge of entering the forest, "You guys ready?" She said this with a smile hoping to follow behind the 2 and help get the group to their final goal a scroll which would have instructions on it for them to follow. Hiro Kazami greets Alysia Fǎ with a smile and a wave. He was glad that he wasn't alone and was confident on finishing first round of the S class trials. He replies, "Sure, let's get a move on. It seems that their about to start soon." Then turning to Sagewing and staring at him with glittering eyes. Sagewing quietly followed Alysia in her path towards the forest. He gave a nod, refusing to utter as much as a word. He still remained astounded that none of them had any considerable reaction to the fact that he towered way above them, or most of all, that he was big glorified bird. He gazed into the forest, through the thickets and bustling leaves. There was a small pathway through the trees which otherwise obscured one's vision, but he doubted that it would be a perilousless journey. The thought made him let out a low caw of content. Alysia nodded as they went into the forest, the dense trees and foliage were considerable but she was still unsure entirely why the forest was called savage in the first place, she assumed there would be a considerable number of traps or even plants inside the forest that may pose an issue. It soon became clear how so the forest got its name as several trees seemingly shifting around in the background, not a present issue at the moment but one that should be kept an eye on. Alysia kept her magic at the ready though in case something goes does down. "Oh, uhhh topic for conversation.... Oh I know! If I may ask why did you guys decide to participate in this years trials? Just trying to strike up conversation, just a little curious though..." Alysia kept her eyes on the surroundings but was careful to still look approachable conversation wise. "Hehe... let's just say before I joined the guild, I had some issues." murmured Hiro then proceeding to scratch the back of his head. Sagewing remained relatively silent, simply answering his question with a couple of clicks with his beak and a wave of his hand as if to say "I'll tell you later." Sagewing circled around and twisted his head in every direction, paying attention to the smallest of changes. Aside from the trees which he could have swore were once positioned elsewhere, everything else seemed like a perfectly normal forest. Birds chirping, rustling leafs, every once in a while there was the sounds of wildlife. But Sagewing knew better than to let his guard down. Looks could be deceiving. He returned his focus forward, towards the woman who headed the group, following in her tracks. Alysia paused for a second thinking of what her reply should be before responding "Guess you could say I wanted to grow a bit more as a person, be a bit more assertive and stuff I guess." Her eyes darted to her right as she noted a distant rustling of leaves, almost as if the trees were conspiring for a plan of sorts. "If I had to guess i'd assume that this forest has a few daresay hostile traits to it." She kept her guard up and continued forward all the same with her senses heightened as to not get caught off guard. Hiro chuckled a bit at Alysia's joke and added, "nice one, you're such a fungi" While he was trying to come up with more pun, he placed down some shards of diamonds to keep track of where the team was headed to make sure they weren't headed in the wrong direction. Even trying to make out and draw the presumably hazardous route they have passed by using an old notebook and a pencil that he carried around. He stopped for a second as he found something shining at the corner of his eye and went to check it out. He picked it up and said, "What a lucky find, some bismuth crystals," showing it and waving it at the group, "I'm keeping this, this isn't a metal nor crystals that you can just come by even if it is more abundant that gold, plus in addition to that this could be useful in the future for something." Sagewing shook his head with lacking enthusiasm. What a lucky find. he thought to himself. He then heard a lowl and subtle, yet unusual rustling of leaves and ground being ripped open. He turned around just to find that the path they had been walking was slowly shrinking, becoming tightly covered up by thick trees. He rested his talons upon his swords, readying himself for that which is about come. "Alysia." he spoke, just barely loud enough for her to hear him. His voice was dark and grim. Alysia nodded the trees were apart of the trial after all a natural part of the savage forest something along these lines was to be expected. She was nervous but sure of what needed to be done "Carve a path forward, show the trees we aren't to be messed with but don't level the entire forest last thing we need is to run into another team and get into a skirmish." Alysia took up arms with her revolver Goldensun "Keep on guard for any other sneaky traps our proctors have left for us follow me, don't lose sight of one another!" As she said this she darted forward her barrier magic protecting her as a few branches swooped down and impacted off her barrier with no avail to getting through it, what other surprises were inside this forest she wondered as she began to lead the team along the path. Hiro follows Alysia through the trees while making sure to still leave a trail of diamond shards to make sure they don't get lost, "I hope these trees don't move the shards," says Hiro. As they move along through the trees, one of the trees lunged forward about to strike the group. Hiro dashes forward and shouts," look out you two!" He then proceeds pushing Alysia and Sagewing away from danger and then covering himself with a thick sheet of diamond to protect himself. Sagewing stumbled slightly as he was pushed by the young man, and as he did, a tree seemingly took advantage of this moment to deliver a blow with the root to his gut. Sagewing was flung backwards, and as he was descending, he spread out his winged arms and flapped hard, elevating himself a further bit above the ground. "Beware of the ground-" He spoke, his voice a bit softer now, and just as he did, a branch came swinging his way. He dealt a swift slash with one of his swords, swiftly drawn from itäs sheath, cutting the branch down. "Beware of the tops as well. Nowhere is safe." Alysia was caught off guard by the sudden push from Hiro as she was falling forward her skull gauntlets went from its usual state to a more active response to a foreign spatial magic coming from below her, it didn't take her long to figure out that aside from tree roots being a present threat there was one additional type of trap lying in wait a pitfall. Her keen reflexes allowed her to quickly throw a barrier underneath her allowing her to stand where the ground had fallen out from under her. "Beware of pitfalls judging from what I can see from my Spatial Magic there are several paths that lead from the ground to the entrance here!" She then with her gun fired several hellfire rounds at several points in the ground ahead of them slowly burning away the pitfall that was meant to be hidden away. In addition to spooking a few of the trees near the trap by intimidating them with fire, trees are naturally made with a flammable property to them so sentient trees would naturally fear fire out of anything. Alysia spoke loud enough for her team to hear her "We need to progress further in the forest, we are a team of highly skilled mages these trees should be cake walk for us." She spoke with confidence in her words as she truly believed that, her confidence gleamed from her smile even as she held a professional stance. The armor that hiro made had gotten cracked open slightly, he grabs his head with both of his hands and said, "Ouch that hurt a little," while crouching on the floor. As soon as the pain subsided, he stood up and on the top of his head was a small bump. Hiro then turns his attention to Alysia and Sagewing and asked, "You guys are ok right? Those trees hit quite hard, it even manage to crack the armor of diamond." Staring at the trees, he continued, "If the tree were to hit the barrier, the barrier would have been able to handle it but it could drain large amount of your stamina, am I right Alysia? And it could have slow down the search if you had fatigue or you might have passed out and the fact we don't have that much time," Hiro then gets ready and waits for the other two. "Phoenix Soul: Aurora Pluma." Sagewing spoke as he partially took on the form of one of his phoenixes. From his talon he conjured up an orb made from Violet fire. He had it circling around him self and the group, closing it in on any tree that had the "guts" to try and approach them. "Stay close, my fire will keep them off." he spoke, his voice graceful and dripping with authority. He turned his attention towards Hiro. "As for you, save your energy for other things than talking. Especially about thins which are already known to us. Now let's move." He spoke as he gestured for him and Alysia to follow him as he began making his way further through the forest. Alysia holstered her revolver and followed Sagewing as they progressed. She wondered what next obstacle would get in their way, the trees seemed docile for the moment at least or at least the trees viewed fighting us as too much of a hassle and not worth the effort. Given the strength of the group it should not take them much longer to retrieve the scroll and pass the trial. She was very hopeful in passing this trial as they walked along, she noticed large footprints not belonging to the group, a sort of animal footprint as it would be identified as. The tracks led into the trees and from what she could hear it was not nearby but she made a mental note to be ready for anything that these tracks may belong to. Hiro took a look at the footprints and said, "these look like qilin hoof marks but they don't look recent, maybe i was here an hour ago?" Hiro blindly stares at the direction where the trials leads. On the floor there were also scales and blood on the floor so this gave the idea to him that the qilin was hunting a while back. Sagewing halted in his walk and turned around towards Hiro. He walked up to to the lad and crouched down beside the the tracks. The colossal bird-man picked up one of the scattered scales and inspected it. "What do we know about this Qilin? There were no such creatures on Tenrou. Though from these scales I'd assume that it is either fish or reptiian in nature." Sagewing looked to his two comrades and let out a small gutural crow. He turned his attention towards Aleysia, letting the globe of fire hover around her as he created another small one for himself. "Scout ahead, try to see if there is any nearby animals." he turned his focus back to Hiro. "What do you know about these Qilin?" Alysia nodded opening up a spatial frame in front of her looking through it as the other frame it led to moved around the nearby area, a few trees swatted their branches at the distant frame to no real avail as it was intangible in nature to its physicality. "I'd say the scales seem dragon like, but that would be mere speculation on my part." She paused for a minute as the frame in front of her popped suddenly like a balloon suddenly getting popped by someone. Alysia was unsure what was the cause of it but her anticipation led her to assume something else "My Spatial magic got dispelled over due north west of us not sure what dispelled it but I think its where the scroll is!" Alysia was overjoyed in this discovery she had already begun the trek in the direction she pointed towards, momentarily forgetting about the potential hostile animal laying in wait. Hiro immediately turned towards Alysia and exclaimed, "wait did you say that one of your magic got dispelled?" Now rubbing his chin thinking of it, "Hmmmm, I've met a few qilins in my life." Staring at the trail of scales, "I've never met one that could dispel magic, if the qilin we are up against is able to dispel magic " Walks forward along the footprints, "We might have some trouble, I recommend that we get non magic-based weapons to deal with it." he picks up a branch and covers the top part with diamonds then turning it into a claymore. "Because even if the qilin doesn't have a nuke, it has a lot of strength and might just go with a brute force tactic." Hiro lifts the claymore and said, "You guys ready?" Sagewing nodded. "Very well. Alysia, lead the way, and if possible, steer us clear of the path towards the Qilin. As for you, Hiro, you should probably get rid of that diamond sword. If this beast has the ability to nullify our magical abilities, a magically created sword won't do you any good." He spoke calmly as he took positions nearby Alysia, dwarfing her with his size. Alysia led the group through the forest, hoping not to run into the qinlin if possible. Although she had never encountered one from what she could infer from the words of her comrades it didn't seem like it was too mobile in nature so just staying a step ahead of it and a keen sense of reflexes should be sufficient to deal with the qinlin should they run into it. Although despite her best efforts the number of footprints similar to the ones earlier only increased, "I think we may end up running into it whether we want to or not, but at least the trees of this area don't seem as hostile minus a few that swat at us." As she said this she ducked under a branch that suddenly swooped out at her. She did devise a few strategies to deal with the qinlin using the trees but that would only really matter should they encounter the qinlin. Hiro looks at Sagewing and said, "It's fine, I'm gonna replace the structure with another metal, just think of it as diffusion or something." He takes out some metal from his back and placed it on the claymore, it then soon meld into the sword, "Hey there are a lot of scratch markings on these and they seem to be more docile here," Sagewing flashed is fire right in front of Hiro's face. "Could have to do with this?" Sagewing asked cynically. They ventured further, and as they did, Sagewing took notice of how his fire began to dim.Curious. he thought. He tried applying more magic power, but it didn't seem to accomplish anything. Suddenly, the fire vanished. Sagewing drew his swords. "Bewa-!" he tried to cry out, but before he could, he was swiftly tackled by some unknown creature, sending him stumbling on the ground. Alysia had already figured the qinlin was nearby the moment the fire started to dim and flutter out, so she took a few steps back from Sagewing to avoid getting tackled as well. "Magic seems off the table, martial arts and physical attributes are needed here!" Her usual fighting style wouldn't cut it here it seemed as though Alysia needed to flip her combat switch she drew her silver colored blade Silvermoon and took a fighting stance and dashed around behind its guard attempting to deliver a swift kick to its right side. Sagewing quickly regained his footing after the tackle, recollecting his swords and striking a stance next to Hiro. He made a motion with his head, gesturing for Hiro to accompany him in the assault. They dashed forward, the two of them striking from different directions. Hiro attempted a strike from the same direction as Alysia while Sagewing went in for a bash with the flat end of his scimitars against it's head. But the attacks would prove futile as the Qilin suddenly disappeared in a veil of smoke, leaving the three remaining guild members having attacks effecftively directed towards eachother. Sagewing ceased his assault and dodged the attacks coming from Hiro and Alysia. He tried to turn to them and speak, only to find that a meekly caw was all that came out. It then struck him, he communicates through Sound Magic. Without his magic, he won't be able to speak or give directions and suggestions. We will just have to put our faith in Alysia now. he thought. Alysia was unsure how the qinlin was nullifying the magic in the area, if all it nullified was attacks affecting it then Sagewing would still be able to use his sound magic, but if all he could do was caw then she couldn't establish telepathy with the group. For the qinlin to just disappear it had to have been a copy of itself, using a combination of logic and strategy Alysia made the assumption that the qinlin was targeting the strongest member of the group or at least what it assumed to be the strongest based purely on height. Alysia quickly darted towards Sagewing "Sagewing its after you!" As she said this 2 qinlins completely identical to the one encountered previously moving in a pincer movement to bring down Sagewing. Alysia moved in a quick seamless motion delivering a quick kick to the qinlin on Sagewings left knocking it off its charge balance causing it to impact with the other qinlin leaving them open for an attack from Sagewing and Hiro, "Hit 'em hard!" She hoped this was the maximum the qinlin had to spare. Hiro then jumps into the air over the qilins and onto a tree branch. Taking advantage of the terrain, he lunges forward by pushing himself of the tree branch and then proceeding to slamming the qilins down to the ground leaving the area covered in dust. When the dust was about to subside, instead of seeing the two qilins knocked out, they saw Hiro flying out of the smoke and hitting a tree. "Arghh, that hurt. Careful guys they are much more stronger than they seem." Sagewing took advantage of the distraction tht Hiro had offered them. Regardless of his success in his attack, it sufficed to draw their attention away from Sagewing, leaving the Qilin's open for a direct attack. He dashed forward, his swords at the ready as he went for a strong and sharp cut to the two Qilin's sides. Clone or not, magnificent as the beast was, he could not allow it to harm his comrades. The swords dug deep into the sides of the two beasts, the two of them letting out horrific cry of torment. And yet, after attack had been performed, the two Qilin's disappeared once more. More rustling leaves were heard, and as he looked around, he was astounded to see himself and his team surrounded by a total of six Qilins, one of them much bigger than the rest. He dashed forward, pulling hiro back to the team. Now with Alysia, Sagewing and Hiro gathered, they might have a better chance, though Sage doubted it. He looked at ever qilin, trying to find an opening, but all of them had perfect synergy. Without magic they would only barely stand a chance. Sagewing pondered the possibilities when a thought struck him. IT's something he used to do with the animals back on Tenrou. He tapped on both his comrades's shoulders, gesturing a lowering motion, telling them t lower their weapons and surrender. He walked past them and towards the greatest of the Qilins. He went down on his knees and layed down his swords on the ground, pushing them towards the qilin so they were out of reach. Hrio follows Sagewing and whispered to him, "I was thinking about this but if these qilin's nature is adamant this might backfire," looking down on the floor, "But even if this is the best shot of escaping this, I didn't want to gamble our chances." He smiles at him and continues, "Let's hope they accept the apology and our flag of surrender," Alysia kneels next to the other two and then Hiro screamed out, "sorry for trespassing!" Alysia's sword disappeared when she knelt on the ground her battle switch was off and she was back to her usual self. She placed her hands together in a like apologetic kind of way, "We are terribly sorry for spooking you guys, we were just protecting our comrades from what seemed like an enemy attack." Her words just breathed an apologetic tone that seemingly helped calm the qinlins down, the copies of they made disappearing as they walked off stomping the ground with their hooves, it went its way back to its nest but it kept its eyes on the group waiting for them to leave. Alysia motioned for the group to follow her away from the qinlin and its nest. Sagewing began to conjure up a new flame, just incase that the trees had any plans left for them. It was probably just paranoia, but he prefered to keep everyone secure and safe all the same. The group began to make their way further into the forest, but noth before Hiro had achieved himself a hug with the majestic Qilin. Sagewing shook his head at Hiro's childlike behavior. "You performed well back there." He adressed them. "The Qilin proved a mighty foe, but I expect that it will not be the last of our problems." Alysia was excited "Even without magic we handled that situation very well, without having to resort to drastic measures i'm happy all the same." Alysia hopped ahead of the group the trees weren't pestering the group anymore so the big challenges seemed out of the way. She hoped they would shortly find the scroll and pass this trial. "Sagewing think we'll find the scroll soon this forest can be a bit frightening." Alysia kept an eye out for any sort of dangers but luckily she didn't spot anything inherently dangerous against them. "I would think so." He spoke. "The worst this forest has to offer us seem to be behind us. But none the less, we should be cautious." he said as he waved his flame in front of a tree which stood a bit too close for his liking. "But still anticipate danger." The group was soon out of the thick forest, leaving way for a slightly moer open area, filled to the brim with the most gorgeous bloom Sagewing had ever laid his eyes upon. Alysia paused when she spotted the purple flowers, they were beautiful but something about them seemed off. Given the name of the forest she doubted they were harmless, "Be careful! they could be poisonous or like its connected to the head of a giant evil frog thing!" She stayed away from the flowers about a good distance away "Should we go around or through them? She asked curiously. "Hm..." Sagewing muttered as he looked up to the sky. He spread out his arms, giving them a powerful flap which sent him hurtling into the sky. He made sure to maintain his height which allowed him to see for vast distances. He looked beyond the the flowery field, and beyond it's edge, he could see a great rock, raditating magic and fire. He lowered himself down to the ground, turning t his comrades. "I believe our point of interest is right ahead. Time is of the essence and the fastest path is through these blooms. But if you remain worried about their possible effect... HEAT STREAM!" He cried out and from his fist came a ravishing hout of violet fire. "Follow me. I'll burn a path through the blossoms." he said as he continued moving on. While the flowers may be reduced to nothing more than ash and crips, little was he aware of the toxic pollen that still littered the air. Alysia was startled at the sudden burning of the blossoms and the trees were startled by this revelation as well. Alysia ran quickly behind Sagewing through the once beautiful remains of the flowers "Well at least no... Ack." Alysia felt a numbing sensation around her vocal cords so she used her archive telepathy to inform the group using telepathy rather than her numb vocal cords "The pollen has some kind of numbing effect! don't breath in the pollen!" she hoped her message got across but if need be her telepathy can substitute as a form of communication if the need arises. "Eh, I'm good." Hiro spoke while casually walking behind his two team mates. Apparently, for whichever reason, Hiro remained unaffected by the pollen, walking through it like a breeze. "It won't do me any difference. I utilize sound magic to speak, remember?" Sagewing spoke as he continued his fiery onslaught. After a few minutes of unending burning of blossoms and breathing the pollen, the group made it to the other end. Before them was a gateway of stine that led in to a rock. The gateway was consumed by intese fires and in front of the flames stood a table, littered with a collection of bottles, seemingly containing some sort of fluid. As soon as they came close to the table, the surrounding area burst into flames. Sagewing attempted to use his magic to quell them, but remained unsuccessful. "Fascinating. Whatever t is we have to do, it has something to do with these bottles." Alysia looked over the bottles they had nothing on them so she put them back in the exact same spot they were at originally. She looked over the gateway closely it was new to her some sort of door that wouldn't let one pass unless they fulfilled a certain condition. She looked back over to the table to see a scroll on it. "OH! a scroll!" She picked it up and opened it to be a tad bit disappointed to see that it was not the scroll they needed. She handed it to Sagewing and went over to the bottles "Guide me on this Sagewing I bet one of these bottles will get us to the other side of that gate and I bet the scroll sits on the other side. I believe in ya!" Alysia waited for Sagewings instructions so they could pass the gate and finish the trial. Sagewing opened up the scroll and started to read it. "...Intriguing. It's a riddle. Let's see here... We have to pick just two of these potions. Any more and we will have failed. Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two of us will help you, whichever you would find, One among us seven will let you move ahead, Another will transport the drinker back instead, Two among our number hold only nettle wine, Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line. Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore, To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: First, however slyly the poison tries to hide You will always find some on nettle wine’s left side; Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend; Third, as you see clearly, all are different size, Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; Fourth, the second left and the second on the right Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight." Sagewing looked up to the skies and let out an almost gleeful sigh. "This is the most entertaining so far. I am in love with riddles. Not always the best at them, but none the less. Now to find the right one... Come here, Alysia, Hiro, help me find the answer." Alysia went over the riddle multiple times in her head running, "Tiny and big bottles are safe... the nettle wine is the second left and second on the right." Alysia guides her hand to the tiny bottle which she deduced to be the one to be the one to move them ahead. "I believe this is the move on ahead one any luck on finding the one to take us back to the start?" She asked the others this hoping they had deduced that portion of the riddle. Sagewing smiled to the best of his ability, a small chuckle escaping him. "Through termination of options, this one to the right should lead us out." he spoke as he lifted it, and as he did, the other potions evaporated. "Well then, since oyu were the one to, hopefully, find the correct potion, will you give us the honor of retreiving the scroll?" Alysia nodded opening the top of the potion waiting a few seconds to see if she was incorrect, luckily it didn't prove fatal. She then walked towards the gateway and placed her hand on the center phasing through it she walked past. On a pedestal she spotted the scroll she quickly walked towards it and picked it up. She then walked back through the gate to the group "Victory!" She then opened the scroll and placed it on the table for the group to read. Written in black ink on the fresh parchment was a set of instructions for the group: "We congratulate you on making your way through the forest, overcoming each obstacle that stood in you way. But perhaps now is the the most difficult challenge of all. As your final task for this round, before you exit the forest, you must each cast a vote as to who you feel should be eliminated from your team. As an S Class Mage you must be someone who can be looked up to as a leader, and respected as such. You must be the one who can support your team, and make those tough calls when no one else can; regardless of the backlash that may come. At the beginning you were instructed to pick teammates, deducing who would be the best fit for any obstacle that may lay ahead. Now it is time for you to analyze such choices and decide who did not fully meet the expectations necessary to advance in such a difficult conquest. '' ''We ask that you please write down your vote on this parchment and turn it into one of the judges upon your exit of the forest. After all teams have made it through the forest we will announce who shall advance, as well as the updated point standings." Hiro stares at the parchment and murmurs to himself, "Crap, looks like I have to pick between us?" With a blank expression, "Hmmm from what I think, I think I did not stand out this year." Hiro sighs and stares at the paper, "Might as well pick, seeing both of their overalls and my personal opinions. I think Sagewing would be the better option of the two," he ticks sagewings name and left the booth. "Well either way I think I might get elimated this time, too bad was hoping to brawl it out with the other contestants." Alysia looked sad she didn't like having to chose which of them would be eliminated from the trial she was hoping there would be a better resolution to this then a simple tick on a paper. She looked back on the trial recalling everything as they occurred and determined who among the group was the least helpful. She wrote Hiro's name on the paper and backed away "Sorry about this... I wish this could have been decided differently..." Alysia turned away from the group not wishing to show her face for now. Sagewing' limited fetures grew grim. This was not how he would have prefered for this to happen. But none the less, it is the higher up's desire. Sagewing held up the paper as he pondered who should be up. But in all honesty, in his mind, there wasn't even a doubt. Alysia demonstrated a strong and capable body and mind, able to think up a beneficial situation in a near instant. If he were to be honest, the the truth is that he had too little faith in Hiro's capabilities as a leader and he knew for certain that if things came to it, he himself would not feel confident nor safe puting his life in Hiro's hands. As such, it's with a heavy heart, but a clear conciense, that he wrote down Hiro's name. As soon as the name was written, the scroll vanished. Sagwing sighed. He held up the potion which should allow them to exit. He poured a bit of it into everyones mouths and they exited the flames. It was a long journey, full of silence as the glorified bird, the woman and the man made their way out of the forest. Sounded like a joke. Felt like a crueler one. The End